From Staff Reports

Regal Entertainment Group, which operates several area movie theaters, announced ealier this month that it plans to buy rival Consolidated Theatres, solidifying its dominance of the Asheville market.
Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal will buy Consolidated for $210 million, including a new 15-screen theatre planned to open in Biltmore Park’s Town Square expansion later this year.

Consolidated, a Charlotte-based company, operates 28 theaters with 400 screens in six states in the southeast. Regal is the world’s largest movie theater chain, with more than 6,000 screens.

Biltmore Grande, which is expected to open in the third quarter of 2008, will have the most screens of any multiplex cinemas in Buncombe county and will be the only one with stadium-style seating.

It would have represented competition for Regal, which owns Hollywood Cinemas on Hendersonville Road, as well as Cinebarre, which plays first-run movies and serves food and beverages at Biltmore Square Mall. Regal is a partner in Cinebarre. Regal also owns Beaucatcher Cinemas in East Asheville.
A spokesman for Biltmore Farms, which owns the Biltmore Grande property, said  that Regal plans to move ahead with plans for the new theater near the Long Shoals Road/Interstate 26 interchange.